I won a trip there I have never used. WreckWench’s husband (Bill Routh - OffTheWallDiver) said I should go with him instead. He said there are certain dates he does this trip and that you are trained where to look and what to "feel" for before you enter. You might want to PM him for info and dates

I’ve actually been looking at Captain Tom (McMillen) out of Charleston. Met a couple from Gainesville, GA that have done several charters with him and rave about how good he is. If Bill is with Off the Wall Dive Center at Lake Jocassee, I think a co-worker has been to the Cooper River with him. If it’s the same guy, he raves about how good HE is. Right now, I’m just in the dreaming stage. I need to finish up my AOW and get a few more dives under my belt before I’ll be ready for a blackwater dive.

You generally find your fossils on the fossil beds. You can tell if you are on a fossil bed on radar. In between the fossil beds are a clay bottom, which is just that, mud. Diving in black water requires the right current on a fossil bed and requires more equipment such as flash lights, collection bag, and pick.

So here’s how it works. The fossils are caked in the Marl (that really hard clay bottom) and are periodically washed free by the alternating tidal flow in the river. Once a Meg tooth (or whale earbone, or whatever) is out of the Marl, it will wash around and end up on one of the gravel piles. Each day (or more likely twice or 4 times a day) a loose fossil may end up in a different spot or on a different gravel pile until someone finds it or it gets banged around enough and breaks up.

You may find some fossils still in the Marl, but they will be the ones that are still partially buried with just a part sticking out. If you are lucky and the tooth is almost ready to break free on its own, you may be able to chip it out, but if it’s more than about 10% still in there, you could spend your whole dive trying to get that one tooth out and still fail (or end up breaking it off, ruining the value). I recommend feeling around in the gravel instead for anything smooth and triangular. Also, precolonial (indigenous culture) artifacts will be mainly in the gravel as well, as it would never have been embedded in the prehistoric clay beds.

Also, some advice on wildlife. There are some giant catfish in there. They like to hang out under logs and due to the tubidity of the water, you won’t see them until your face is like 6 inched from theirs. There are also a lot of gators on the river. They like to lay on top of logs in the sun (in winter) and are pretty lethargic, but I like to stay away from the shore (and them) as much as possible. And don’t forget to listen for Bubba flying overhead in his Bass boat before you surface.

Four of us driving up from MS May 8th. Diving the 9th and 10th, returning the 11th. We split the cost of the boat about 100 a day per person. Two dives from boat and a shore dive. We can use another diver. We go as often as we can. Great charter.

sounds good to me. keep me updated if anything changes

What was you dive experience before you dove the cooper? That dive is for people that have blackwater and current experience. Not to mention that dive should be done with an advanced certification or higher. a diver should also have , in my opinion, of 50 open water dives or more in open water, boat diving experience and should be total aware that there is a possibility of contact with large aquatic creatures (gators). The cooper is very rewarding but it should only be attempted by someone who is ready for it.

That was my first dive! My certification was 6 months or so prior and I told that to the charter guide but the only thing he recommended was using a buoy to help w/ not getting hit by a boat. That tidbit of info of course made me nervous to resurface w/out the buoy. Taking the regulator out of my mouth and trying to inflate a buoy was a bad idea!! Some of the experienced divers back on the boat said they would never take the regulator out of their mouth etc. The guide didn’t listen to my experience level and maybe I sounded confident...but diving the Cooper should as you stated be only for the very experienced or at least w/ specific training. While researching dive sites in SC today, I saw your prior post cautioning about the Cooper and so I wanted to reiterate the point of how bad it can be!

that operator should be "outed" to at least warn other newbies. Heck even with me being a professional, i would be hesitant to use that operator. Please do not let that experience keep you from enjoying this sport. go have fun, get some experience and some confidence in your abilities and come back to the cooper. dive safe and feel free to contact me with any questions you may have in the future. welcome to the sport.

"That was my first dive! My certification was 6 months or so prior..." How did you get certified without any dives?

The first dive alone certification dives of course has a instuctor watching you etc. It had been 6 or 8 months from that certification but I thought it would be ok. It turned out to be too much for me trying to handle the current, the darkness, and ultimately my own mind. Not knowing where I was at in relation to the boat, hearing boats and therefore not knowing if it was safe to come up No instructor to rely on for any of that spells for a bad first dive alone. I just wanted to post some info on what happened to me to help others make sure they are prepared for this type of diving. I’ve learned recently that the water I swallowed during that buoy mistake and panic could have resulted in death even days later. Water in the lungs can cause inflammation and infection resulting in death. Not sure how often that happens but a quick shout out to new divers to make sure you’re diving with experienced divers and that will be hard to do in the Cooper River as you’d have to hold their hand or have a 100 Million Watt Spotlight to see them!

Sorry you had a bad experience.. That is definitely NOT a beginner’s dive. Hopefully it didn’t deter you from diving as a whole.. Find a local dive group and get some dives with folks in some nice clear open water. Maybe after some underwater time and experience with different conditions, you might want to go back and try again. I’ve done Cooper River and for me and my group, it was a BLAST!! We came back with handfuls of teeth and artifacts. But, all of us had some low viz dives to our name and I’ve had black water experience, so the low viz was no worry to us. Again, sorry you had a bad exprience and I hope you get to see what diving can be in the right place and right conditions.

It’s all boat dives with a guide to find the very productive spots. BUT.....I want to caution you about the cooper. It is black water diving with current. If you do not have a lot of experience with both of these aspect of diving i would not advise doing the cooper just yet. I do not know your log book to see if you have experience in these areas so please forgive me if you do, but i would not take customers there unless the could prove to me they had the experience. if you have any questions, i would more than happy to talk to you.